The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted 53-40 to confirm lawyer Candace Jackson-Akiwumi to serve as a judge on the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

       Jackson-Akiwumi, 41, becomes President Joe Biden’s first judge appointed to the 7th Circuit, and his second U.S. Circuit Court judge confirmed in his presidency, following the Senate’s confirmation earlier this month of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Courts. Federal courts of appeal are the final stop for most federal litigation, as they are the final level before the U.S. Supreme Court.

       Jackson-Akiwumi replaces longtime 7th Circuit Judge Joel Flaum, who took a form of semiretirement late last year.

       Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, nominee to be U.S. circuit judge for the 7th Circuit, testifies during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in Dirksen Senate Office Building on April 28, 2021, in Washington. (Tom Williams/Getty Images/Tom Williams/Pool/Getty Images North America/TNS)

       A Virginia native and a former federal defender who earned a law degree from Yale Law School in 2005, Jackson-Akiwumi was based in Chicago from 2007 until 2020, working first as an associate at the Skadden Arps law firm and then for a decade as a staff attorney at the federal defender program in the Northern District of Illinois. Since last year, she has been a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder in Washington, focusing on civil litigation, white-collar criminal defense and investigations.

       Jackson-Akiwumi will be the first active Black judge serving on the 11-judge court since Judge Ann Claire Williams stepped back from active service in 2017.

       On the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., referred to Jackson-Akiwumi’s decade of service as a federal public defender.

       “She defended hundreds of indigent clients at every stage of the legal process,” Durbin said. “She is a real lawyer. She knows that courtroom inside and out and she knows the legal process as well.”

       Jackson-Akiwumi is the daughter of Raymond Jackson, a federal district judge in Virginia who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993.

       Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.

       Tiger show at Kane County Fair raises concerns, but officials can’t stop it

       35m

       Downstate man charged with assaulting Capitol police officer, media during Jan. 6 riot

       1h

       Business Chicago drivers pursue class action lawsuit against Chicago Parking Meters over ‘75-year monopoly’ granted by city

       1h

       Chicago Cubs Meet Joe Johnson, the Chicago Cubs fan behind Obvious Shirts, a T-shirt company built on one-liners, a love of baseball and a little luck: ‘It worked. I can’t believe it.’

       6:30 AM

       Breaking News Tornado causes tree apocalypse in Naperville and Woodridge; loss could have aftereffects for years

       11:44 AM